


Gods and Mortals

by zinnianne



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Angst, Bad Ending, Canon Universe, Character Death, Dating, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Marriage, One Shot, References to Illness, Sad, Short, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 21:11:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6393919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinnianne/pseuds/zinnianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's easy to forget what being a God entails. "Forever" is easier to say when you don't think about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gods and Mortals

**Author's Note:**

> My first work, and it's this angsty mess. Inspired by this prompt from otpprompts on Tumblr:
> 
> "Okay so imagine your OTP and every year on their anniversary, person A gives person B a necklace with a little heart locket on it. Inside it is a picture of person A or a picture of the two of them. A does this so B can “always hold them close to their heart”. One year A dies, and it’s almost their anniversary. B goes out and gets another locket, putting a picture of the two of them in it. B then puts the locket on A’s grave, requesting that they never be forgotten."

He's sixteen, and she's fifteen.

 

"What's this?" Kid asks, toying with the golden heart she'd place around his neck. The metal is cool and smooth, and when he looks closer, he can see the faint etchings on the surface, symmetrically criss-crossing lines.

She grins wide, a hand behind her head as she sheepishly scratches at her hair, "It's a locket," she explains, eagerly pointing at it. "Open it!"

He does as she says, deft fingers working their way around the edges and prying it apart. Inside is a simple picture on glossy photo paper, resized and cut into shape, and he can't keep the smile off his face as he examines it.

It's a picture of them on their first date, a candid that Liz had snapped amidst the chaos. Kid had taken Maka out for a formal dinner, insisting that everything be perfect and _private_ , but everyone had followed. Surprisingly, neither of them had noticed- at least, not until Black Star came crashing down from the ceiling, shouting about how _"Since you couldn't have me, the best God, you settled for the next best thing!"_ and that he approved of the relationship. _Approved_ , as if they needed his approval!

When Maka had finished disposing of them all, Kid feared the night was ruined, but she had laughed and laughed and laughed, saying it was perfect. _"It just wouldn't be right if they weren't okay with it, you know?"_

Liz must have snapped the picture then; it's slightly angled, taken from the floor. He can just barely make out Black Star's blue hair in the corner, but the main focus of the picture is himself and Maka, smiling at each other as she held his hand tightly.

"Today is our anniversary," Maka says, then glances away, mumbling just a bit. "I thought it matched your eyes. Do you like it?"

He closes the locket, lets it rest against his chest as he pulls her closer to place a chaste, tender kiss on her lips, hoping he can convey what he doesn't have the words for right now. "I love it," he murmurs, and by the look in her eyes, he thinks she understands what he wanted to say.

 

Later, Maka finds him with a dozen black roses and discovers he was trying to dispose of them because Liz told him black roses mean heartbreak, an awful thing for a gift. She scowls and takes the roses from him, scoffing at his sputtered excuses. "I'll give them a new meaning, then," she says, pulling him in for a kiss. "They can mean forever."

He stares at her and the roses and he doesn't say what he's thinking. He doesn't say that forever is longer than it seems, that even he can't grasp how long forever is but he knows it isn't long enough. He doesn't say that she's promising more than she can give, more than she should give. Maka Albarn is no fool, and he knows if she's said it, she knows what forever means to her.

So he closes his eyes and kisses her back and doesn't think about what forever means to him. "Forever."

* * *

 

He's seventeen, and she's sixteen.

 

She gives him another locket at the same time he presents her a dozen black roses, and they think they may have accidentally started a tradition. The heart this year is black with white stripes, and though the lines are perfectly straight, he thinks they're hand-painted. "It matches you," she grins, dazzling him with her smile.

This time, the picture inside is one they'd taken themselves, a goofy self photo at the beach. If he squints, he can vaguely make out Soul laying on the beach and Black Star leaping into the ocean in the background, and he chuckles as he pulls her in for a hug.

 

They're sitting on the couch in her apartment a week later when Kid finally asks, "Why a locket?"

He watches as her cheeks darken and she bites her lip, "It's really cheesy," she mumbles into his side, hiding her face.

"Isn't that just another word for romantic?"

She doesn't respond to his gentle teasing, and he thinks that maybe she isn't going to answer at all. The silence stretches on, long enough he's wondering if he should apologize, when she speaks again, "...So I'll always be close to your heart," and he feels the words more than he hears her barely audible voice.

He pulls her closer, and if she notices the way his grip is too tight or his voice is unsteady, she doesn't mention it.

"You always will be."

* * *

 

He's twenty, and she's nineteen.

She graduated from the DWMA last year, but she never left Death City. Soul asked her, once, if she wanted to see the world. She thought about her Mama, thought about her future, and shook her head with a smile. _"My whole world is right here."_ He stayed, too, even though she insisted he didn't have to. _"I don't have anywhere else to be,"_ he had shrugged, signature lazy grin in place.

She wanted to tell him to go home, but she threw another letter from her Papa in the trash today and the bitter hypocrisy wasn't lost on her.

Liz and Patti chose to stay with Kid as well, the Gallows manor more than accommodating enough for them even now. Sometimes Kid sees Liz bring guys home, but they never stay the night and he worries that he's holding them back, that they won't settle down because of him.

He told them as much, once, and Liz punched him right in the middle of that sentence. _"It's none of your business who I bring home! I'll settle down when I want to!"_ she shouted as Patti laughed. He didn't point out that even she said "when," not "if."

Black Star and Tsubaki travel all over the world, _"spreading my legacy!"_ as he proclaimed. They spent a year in Japan, and Maka wonders if Tsubaki ever patched things up with her family, if they know of what happened to her brother. But they visit all the time, popping in and out of Shibusen as they please.

Maka once came home to find him raiding her fridge, and she thinks he _let_ her punch him, something that still infuriates her to this day. It terrifies them all, in a way, to see how strong he's gotten, how strong he might still get. But then she sees him drinking _her damn milk_ straight from the carton and she thinks that he'll always be Black Star no matter how powerful he gets. (She isn't sure whether that thought is reassuring or not.)

And Kid, though free to leave Death City, rarely does so. He often sends Maka and Soul on the long distance missions halfway across the globe, but they're needed less and less. Without witches causing chaos, the only real threats are pre-Kishin, and the battle on the moon seems to have scared most people away from that path- there's fewer than ever before. And promising new candidates arise from Shibusen all the time, the weapon DNA showing no signs of fading from the human race.

Everything is different, but so much is the same. The locket this year is bigger, the size of his palm, and glaringly rainbow striped. Maka tries to stifle her laughter at the expression he makes and fails, giggles bursting forth ungracefully as she sputters out, "Just open it!"

Inside reveals a pure white background, and he idly wonders if she painted it rainbow herself. On the left, engraved into the metal, is the simple word: "Forever." On the right is a picture again, this time a group photo; all of them together, posing for their graduation from Shibusen. He had been dragged into the picture even though he was technically their headmaster, because _"you were our classmate, too!"_

Internally, he's extremely touched, warmth flooding him as a smile threatens to break out across his face. Externally, he keeps an even expression as he stares at her and dryly asks, "Rainbow though, really?"

The smile finally wins over as she snatches her flowers away in a huff, sending him to the ground with her signature Maka Chop. He's still smiling as he dazedly pulls himself up and she freezes a few steps away, reading over the card he'd placed in the bouquet, mouth agape as she turns on her heel. "...You can't be serious."

On the simple white cardstock is his unmistakable cursive scrawl:

_"Ms. Albarn,_

_We at the DWMA would like to formally extend an offer for a teaching position here at our esteemed school. Hours and pay are negotiable. We look forward to your response._

_Signed,_

_Lord Death"_

He grins far too smugly as he points to the bottom of the card, "I'm wholly serious, I assure you. Look, there's my official signature."

"But I'm a Meister!"

"You are."

"I can't be a teacher!"

"Maka Albarn, deciding she can't do something?" Kid scoffs. "That isn't like you at all."

It isn't, and she knows it isn't. He's desperate for her to put down roots and she's terrified of the prospect of it. She doesn't want to end up like her mother, but she knows Kid isn't like her father and she has to stop comparing them all. She's almost crushing the flowers in her grip, but she can't tell if it's fear or excitement. It's always been a mixture of both, when she's made the worst and best decisions of her life.

Courage exists only because there is fear, and Maka Albarn knows both very well. "Okay," she says, a simple word containing far too many decisions.

 

Her first week of teaching is interrupted by Black Star and she can't believe she honestly got to send him to detention when he doesn't even attend school anymore.  
  
She thinks she likes teaching more than she wanted to.

* * *

 

He's twenty-six, and she's twenty-five.

  
  
The locket was golden again this year, the same as it was the first year. It matches the color of the wedding band he slides onto her finger. The picture inside is placed into it after the fact; their wedding picture.

She thinks her Papa cried more than anyone, and that's a mixture of heartwarming and embarrassing that she doesn't want to think too hard about.

She asked Soul to give her away instead, because he is her partner and his approval meant more than her father's. He conned her at the last moment, watching from the outskirts as she pried her father's hands off of her while Spirit wailed.

She's going to kill him later, but she appreciates it on some small level.

Her Mama didn't show up.

 

It's easier if she doesn't think about it.

* * *

 

He's thirty-four, and she's thirty-three.

 

Maka isn't sure when it happened, but Soul has more or less patched things up with his family. They'll never be close, but they send letters back and forth, Soul to Wes most of the time, and it's better than it was before. The two have almost nothing in common, but one day Soul tells Maka that having a brother is pretty cool, and she smiles.

Liz and Patti still haven't left Kid's side, but she's brought home the same guy for two weeks and he thinks this time might be different. He wants to tell her to settle down, but he doesn't know how to say it without getting slugged again. He hopes she knows she can do anything. They were always free to do anything.

Black Star and Tsubaki moved to Japan, though they're still almost always traveling somewhere. Sometimes Kid gets reports of a DWMA representative causing chaos, and he sighs wearily even as his mouth betrays him in a smile. Some things never change.

Some things do. Maka hasn't heard from her mother in two years. She sits down with her Papa, a weary little girl with a tired old man, and cries until she doesn't have anymore tears to cry. The truth must be faced, eventually. "Why wasn't I good enough for her to stay?" she chokes out, and she doesn't punch Spirit when he hugs her, not this time. "Why did you cheat? Why weren't we good enough? Why... why wasn't I ever good enough?"

He doesn't know what to do, but he never did. He didn't know how to stop himself, or how to stop Kami from leaving. He doesn't even really know why he did it, but if he thinks hard enough, it might be because he never felt good enough for his wife, either. It's easier not to think about it, but he's done too much avoiding. He's so sorry Maka had to feel that way too. He's so sorry he wasn't a good Papa.

He says as much to her, and she shakes her head and hugs him back for the first time in years. She doesn't know if things can be fixed, doesn't think she remembers a time they weren't broken, but he's never stopped loving her even when she hated him and she thinks that's enough. "You stayed," she mutters, grief and old anger finally running dry. "You stayed, Papa."

  
  
They've all grown up, too much and not enough, and nothing can be avoided forever.

Kid stares at the mirror in his room, at the stripes in his hair, at the silver locket around his neck, and wonders if he can die.

* * *

 

He's fifty-one, and she's fifty.

 

Maka hasn't taken the idea of retirement very well. It's been four years since she had, and she still vehemently protests that she's only on standby because Meisters of her class are rarely necessary anymore.

Kid has to admit it's a valid argument; the world isn't exactly peaceful, but it's managed well. Pre-Kishin pop up more frequently now, the battle on the moon a decades-old memory too distant to scare people away, but the new Weapon and Meister duos at Shibusen handle them easily. The witch attacks they've had in the past decades are few and far between, and the witches themselves handle the rogues. They like the peace too, it seems.

Liz had settled down with the man Kid thought she would, and news of her pregnancy had sent everyone reeling. Patty never found an interest in anyone but the family she already had, choosing to stay with Liz.

When the baby girl was born, she was named Lily. Kid denies he cried more than Liz, but Maka has it on film.

Lily turned out to be a gun weapon just like her mother. She's seventeen now, and he can see Liz in her smile and Patty in her eyes. They visit Kid almost every day, and he sees Lily in Shibusen sometimes, catches her in the hallways between classes. He's ashamed to admit he avoids her, to admit that looking at her makes him want to cry sometimes.

Soul, too, had settled down with someone, but kids were not to his taste. Maka has long since moved in with Kid, two years before their wedding, in fact. It feels like a lifetime ago. Soul kept their little apartment with claims of _"It's the perfect size for two people anyway."_

She wants to tell him nostalgia is cool too, but she can't, not when she misses the feel of his cool metal weight in her hands, the feeling of slicing through air as she spun him, the power in their resonance link, and she knows neither of them can afford to go on missions anymore. Neither of them have to. The new generation is handling things fine.

It's just harder to let go than they thought it would be.

It surprised no one to find out Tsubaki and Black Star have been together since they were teens. It surprised everyone that Black Star managed to keep from shouting it on live television in seven different countries. And it was only slightly surprising to find out Tsubaki didn't want children, either; _"The Nakatsukasa clan is too old,"_ she said once. _"It's time for new stars to shine."_

  
  
It is the worst kind of unexpected surprise when Kid and Black Star sit together in the Death Room, looking the same as they did thirty years ago, and Kid cracks the (white, this year) locket from gripping it too hard.

* * *

 

He's seventy-six, and she's seventy-five.

  
  
"I'm sorry," Maka says, and he doesn't want to hear why. She coughs into her hand again, and there's blood and he knows why and he still doesn't want to acknowledge it, doesn't want this to be happening.

 

It's ironic, he thinks later, that the locket this year was red.

* * *

 

He's eighty-seven, and she is not.

 

Six years ago, Soul was the first to go. It was simple and tragic and utterly unsuited for him, who probably expected to go out in a cool blaze of glory. One day his wife opened her eyes, and he did not.

Maka was inconsolable, and Kid didn't try to console her, not when the world is so unfair, not when smooth pale fingers wrapped around frail old hands and he, the God of Death, cursed his life. She played the piano at Soul's funeral with shaking hands. It was awful, and everything he would have wanted.

 

Four years ago, and Tsubaki followed. It is not an exaggeration to say the heavens rattled with Black Star's cries, that the world knew of her passing. Her petals had scattered tragically, but never silently, never unnoticed.

He still visits her grave constantly, chatting animatedly and trying to grow camellias. He's an awful gardener, but they bloom only for him.

 

Three years, and Kid already would do anything for Liz to smile or punch him again, for Patty to laugh or yell at him. Lily and her daughter had clung to him in tears and he felt his soul splintering and wondered how much more of this he could take.

Later that night, Maka had tried to hold his soul together with her own, filling in the cracks with warmth and love and quiet apologies. She was always the strongest of them all.

But humans are perfect because of their flaws, and beautiful, strong, courageous Maka Albarn was still only human. Two months ago and she had tugged him closer on the hospital bed, six years past the doctor's most optimistic prognosis, weak and strong and so terribly, terribly human. "I love you," she had simply said, that same determination burning in green eyes that never lost their spark until they did, staring dully at bleach-white ceilings as he screamed.

 

The locket was black that year, and he wonders how long she'd known.

* * *

 

He's eighty-eight, and he's never hated the number more.

 

"Happy anniversary," he murmurs to the gravestone. He stares at the black roses in his hand and laughs, a hollow, bitter, humorless sound. "I guess Liz was right after all, wasn't she?"

If he closes his eyes, he can almost pretend he hears her, can almost imagine the face she'd make. _"Don't say that! They mean forever, remember? I know your forever is longer than mine, but that just means you can't forget me, okay?"_

"Sorry," he responds to the empty air. "I brought you something." A green locket, placed carefully at the foot of the grate. "I thought it matched your eyes. Do you like it?"

The tombstone doesn't answer, but he didn't expect it to anyway. Tears drip down in face, a terribly human reaction, but it doesn't matter. There's no one around to see it. "Your forever is longer than mine now, isn't it?" He wipes at his face, and tries to smile for her, the way she always liked, the way she always did. "So... don't forget me either, okay?"

Warmth, then, familiar and unmistakable, filling in the cracks of his soul. It's gone in an instant, but it's enough to drive him to his knees in front of the grave as he chokes out something that could be a laugh or a sob.

 

_"Forever. I won't forget."_

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry///
> 
> Let me know what was good and what was bad, if you don't mind! I'm trying to become a better writer. Thank you for reading!


End file.
